Free Donuts!
What do you do when you are offered 150 free glazed donuts? You share them of course!
I was going around to local businesses asking for donations for an upcoming church fundraiser. I went to a local bakery that always helps us out. I spoke with the manager and set everything up for the event. She then asked me if I wanted some free donuts. They had last night leftovers and they were going to go in the garbage. There were no groups picking up today. Would I like some? I never say no to free food, so she went and got a box. It had 150 glazed donuts. She said there were 2 more in the back so if I knew any groups that could use them to send them over. She explained that most weekdays leftovers go in the garbage. Groups only want it for weekends (that is when I need mine). So I said Thank you and went on my way.
So am I going to eat 150 Donuts? NOOOOOO! I had to find them hungry bellies that could give them good homes. My co-workers were happy to help me reduce food waste. About 30 gone. The church only had Religious Education scheduled tonight, so they took about 30 for the catechists. I dropped 2 dozen to a friend. My neighbor only wanted 2. Another neighbor took 6. I am only keeping 8. I texted a bunch of other people with no takers. The rest got dropped at Hubby's office. They should be able to make a nice dent in them. I told him to tell people to take them home to their kids. I hope they listen.
I then started thinking about how many donuts were going in the garbage.
3 boxes of 150 = 450 donuts a day x 5 weekdays = 2250 x 52 weeks = 117,000 donuts going in the garbage.
That is one bakery in my town that has at least 10 bakeries. That is crazy! There are hungry people in this country and I know several people that do not get enough food every day. I am not saying you can only eat donuts (it would be fun to try) but if you have no food in your house a donut is better then nothing for breakfast.
I did find a taker for another box. The girls track team had a meet today so my girlfriend (her daughter runs) was going to swing by and get one to bring to the meet. They will get eaten there no problem. So now I am on a mission to try and find groups to take the leftovers during the week on a regular basis. I may be driving donuts all over town because I think that is one of the major problems for the groups. Wish me luck.
You need to find and share this information with homeless shelters, food pantries, and soup kitchens. I'm sure those organizations would be happy to take any leftover doughnuts on a regularly scheduled basis. If you have just one of each of these organizations would be happy to take an entire night's leftovers--and possibly more than once a week. A soup kitchen could turn them into bread pudding or French toast as well as just serving them as is.
ReplyDeleteIf you can hook up that bakery with these sorts of organizations, you will get that food into the hands of those who need it most and will have done a very good thing for the hungry in your community.
My church has a soup kitchen and a food pantry. They are not allowed to take it any more. The governor changed the law several years ago. It has to be sealed or made on the premises. That is part of the problem.
DeleteI think your governor needs to go hungry for a few weeks and maybe change his mind! He should consider himself personally responsible for folks going hungry! Grrr.
DeleteI don't understand his stance, especially with food made in a commercial kitchen As long as it's sealed up when transported, I don't see the issue!
I'm even more impressed with your efforts to see that food doesn't get wasted--seeing what an uphill battle you're facing!
I take any large amounts of food to a church downtown which serves homeless people every single day. I guess Alabama does not have a sealed law.
DeleteThe soup kitchen used to be able to take anything. One time after a school BBQ I brought trays of cooked hot dogs and burgers to them. I think the law changed 3-4 years ago. I don't remember when. There are exceptions to the rule. Fruits and veggies are fine as long as they will be cooked. It does make it harder.
DeleteSo great you are giving the donuts to those that you know will use them rather than seeing them thrown in the bin.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the bakery should make less donuts to save costs and ingredients if they are wasting that many because they are clearly over baking for their customer base.
Yes there are strict rules about leftover food for churches here too but I know that the larger supermarkets give their packaged bread and buns that are leftover at the end of each day to the local charities to distribute to the poor which is fabulous. At least the food goes to those who need it.
Sewingcreations15.
Hubby's office ate the rest. He sent me a picture an hour after they were there and there were 4 left. He said when he was leaving for the day he went in the kitchen again. There were just crumbs. I hate food waste so I was happy they were not thrown away. I am going to call the sports department of the High School and Middle School today to see if they want to take some on a regular basis.
DeleteSupermarkets around here do give packaged foods to charities. The major problem for most charities is figuring out how to get the food from the store to the location where people can get it. I was reading about it last night. I may start volunteering to do this. I'm looking into it.
That was sure nice of the bakery to give you all those donuts and for you to share them with others.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to lose wait so 150 donuts were not coming into my house. I wish some of you lived near by. We could of had a get together over donuts.
DeleteI'm trying to lose some weight also but I don't think I could resist a donut. ;)
DeleteLosing weight didn't happen this week. I gained a pound.
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